Carlo Ancelotti revealed that his team practiced a tactic, typically associated with Sunday League football, to beat Chelsea in the Champions League.
Real Madrid faced Chelsea in the quarter-finals of their favorite competition, which was not the toughest tie they have ever had to face.
They defeated the English competition for the fourth knockout round in a row, with Wesley Fofana failing to defend in the first leg because he was busy reading a note.
Frank Lampard’s team did not perform much better in the second game, and even before kick-off, things did not look good as the club forgot to play the competition’s anthem.
Some shocking defending meant that the west Londoners lost the second game, at Stamford Bridge, by the same 2-0 scoreline that they grabbed the first.
It wasn’t even a vintage performance from the Spanish giants, who are attempting to increase their total of European titles to 15 this season.
They didn’t have to get much further than second gear, and were pretty sloppy at times, but were always an arms length clear from Lampard’s men.
And Ancelotti has now admitted that they practiced Fede Valverde shooting straight from kick off, the kind of thing you’d normally expect to see on your local pitch on a Sunday.
“We have seen in recent games that Kepa at the beginning of the game was on the penalty spot,” the former Blues boss told MARCA about the tactic.
“We thought that with a long shot from Valverde, we could score.
“We tried to work a lot on set pieces, less defensively because we defend in the zone.”
In the end, Valverde did not attempt the long-distance effort, as he presumably decided that Kepa was not far enough from his line to shoot.
However, it did not matter as Los Blancos progressed to the semi-finals, where they will meet Manchester City for the second year in a row at that stage.
Whichever club reaches the final will be the favorite, with the Milan derby on the other side of the draw, but fans will not be happy with the high cost of tickets.
Once again, supporters will be short-changed as only 20,000 tickets will be allocated to each club, and they will have to pay upwards of €690 to see their team play.